What breaks when a Shopify store uses one app for subscriptions and another for bundles?

Why two apps is a real question

Shopify only lets a bundle and a subscription work together when both are built to work together. That is why we put them in the same app. It is also why a store that already has one app for each should test the join before it sells to real customers.

Everything below uses one example: a coffee roaster sells a 3 bag bundle of $20 bags at 10% off, with a 5% subscription discount. One order is $60, which is $54.00 after the bundle discount and $51.30 after the subscription discount. The numbers are an illustration, use your own.

The four places the two apps meet

1. The price of the repeat order

A bundle discount is applied at checkout. A subscription then repeats that order every few weeks, and the repeat orders are created later, without the shopper in the cart. The question is whether the second order still gets the bundle price.

In Supr, a subscribed bundle keeps its bundle discount on every order by default, and the subscription discount comes off after it. In the example, order 1, order 2 and order 12 all cost $51.30. You can also limit the bundle discount to the first orders, or change the subscription discount from a chosen order on. The full walk through is in Coffee subscription bundles: what to charge on repeat orders.

Whichever apps you use, test it with a real order and look at order 2 on the subscription's page, not only at the product page.

2. What subscribers can edit

A customer account page lets subscribers swap, add and remove products. A bundle is priced as a set, so changing one item can leave a bundle that no longer matches the deal.

In Supr's customer portal a bundle's items are grouped under the bundle's name. Swapping and quantity changes are not offered on single bundle items. With Remove products on, a subscriber removes the whole bundle in one action, gifts included, and it can only be removed while something else stays on the subscription (otherwise they cancel, which keeps your cancellation flow in play). A build your own box is edited as a whole box when you turn on Edit bundle boxes, which is off by default. Lock changes before the next order stops edits from 1 to 14 days before the order is packed.

The question for your two apps: if a subscriber swaps one item inside a bundle, which app notices, and what price does the next order charge?

3. Your reports

A bundle bought on subscription is one sale, but two apps can each count it. In Supr's Analytics, Revenue from Supr counts a bundle bought on subscription once, and Bundle and subscription revenue counts it as a bundle. Offers shows each offer's visitors, orders, Bundle orders, Subscribed orders and Subscription rate. A subscription's first order counts toward an offer and its renewals do not.

The question for your two apps: when one order holds a bundle and a subscription, how many times is its revenue added up, and in which report?

4. What your support team sees

When a subscriber writes in about a price, someone has to find the subscription and see what changed. In Supr, a bundle shows on the subscription page as one item with its products listed under it, and the Timeline lists every change and who made it. In the editor, a bundle's products are changed together from the bundle's own controls, and Edit separately is there for the rare change those controls cannot make (check the total before you save).

The question for your two apps: can one person open one page and see the bundle, its price, the discount and the history of changes?

If you already run two apps and want to move to one, never sell the same product through both while you move. The steps are in the migration article of the help center.

A ten minute test for any setup

1. Create a test bundle on a subscription and check out with a test order.
2. Open the subscription and note the price of order 2. Compare it with order 1.
3. Sign in as the customer and try to swap one item, remove the bundle and skip an order.
4. Open your reports and find that one sale. Count how many times it appears.
5. Ask your support person to find out who changed the subscription, using only the tools they have.

More questions to take to any app, not just these four, are in 12 questions to ask a Shopify subscription app.

Every setting is covered in the help center: A Beginner's Guide to Bundles.

Related

• How do I sell bundles on subscription on Shopify?
• How do I let customers build their own box on Shopify?
• How do I sell a set of different products as one bundle on Shopify?
• Which Shopify subscription and bundle apps document the most features?
• What should a coffee roaster charge on repeat orders of a subscribed bundle?
• Should I use Shopify's own Bundles app or a bundle app like Supr?
• How do I run a monthly art supplies club on Shopify?
• How do I stop subscription box members cancelling on Shopify?